MAGALANG, Pampanga – A 12-year-old boy here died last New Year’s Day and was confirmed to have suffered from symptoms similar to other fatalities who received anti-dengue Dengvaxia shots.
The municipal health office here identified the boy as Justine Briones of Barangay San Vicente.
Forensic personnel of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) did an autopsy on his body the following day of his death and found him to have suffered from brain hemorrhage, an occurrence also found in other Dengvavia fatalities.
Sources from the municipal office said Justine was given three Dengvaxia vaccinations on June 16, 2016, Dec. 16, 2016 and Nov. 8, 2017, before Sanofi manufacturer admitted the vaccine was not safe for those who never had history of dengue fever, an ailment transmitted by aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Relatives said Justine initially complained of breathing difficulty while at home last Dec. 27 and was brought to the Andres Luciano District Hospital where he was initially suspected of suffering from asthma and was allowed to go home after some treatment.
Relatives said, however, that Justine never manifested asthma symptoms before.
On Dec. 31, Justine again could not breathe and even lost consciousness and was advised by the Luciano hospital to be rushed to the Jose B. LIngad Regional Hospital in San Fernando where he died at about 11:45 a.m. the following day, New Year’s Day.
The brain hemorrhage was found by the PAO forensics team which examined Justine’s body on Jan. 2.
The Department of Health (DOH) said latest data showed that 19 out of 154 children who died after receiving at least one dose of Dengvaxia, had dengue despite the vaccination.
DOH Undersecretary Enrique Domingo said of the 19 individuals who had dengue, six were diagnosed clinically and 13 were confirmed to have the illness through laboratory tests as of September last year.
“Of those deaths, 19 were definitely due to dengue…. Meaning they were vaccinated with Dengvaxia and somehow the vaccine failed or caused severe effects,” he said.
PAO has done at least 92 autopsies of people, mostly children, who were believed to have died as a result of the Dengvaxia vaccine.
A PAO forensics team led by Dr. Erwin Erfe did the autopsies.
Among the victims, complaints concerning the deaths of 17 children are already pending before the Department of Justice.
Garin
The respondents included former Health Secretary Janette Garin and 16 other respondents.
PAO blamed Garin for procuring P3.5-billion worth of Dengvaxia vaccines even when it was still under clinical trial.
Apart from Garin, among those charged were officials of Sanofi Pasteur, Inc., the maker of Dengvaxia vaccine; Zuellig Pharma Corp., the distributor; officials of the Department of Health and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine who conducted the clinical trials; and some offi cials of the Food and Drug Administration who approved the Dengvaxia’s certificate of product registration.
